This year’s NCSU team, while not a factor nationally, has many quality tools and is showing that it can do many right things under new coach Mark Gottfried. With UNC’s uncertainty since the season-ending Strickland injury last Thursday, tonight’s matchup may be one of the most interesting games between the two in decades. It is one of the first times in a while that State fans can enter this game reasonably hoping for a win, and that makes this game a lot more fun.

I’ve said all season that State and Carolina will split their regular season series, but I think that State win will come in the second meeting. Though tonight’s game should be a good one worthy of ESPN’s hype last night. The game starts at 7pm and is on ESPN.

gogoRaleigh Bowl Calendar

The outstanding rookies include Paul “Tiny” Sturgess, the world’s tallest pro basketball player at 7-8, Jonte “Too Tall” Hall, the shortest Globetrotter ever at 5-2, and Fatima “TNT” Maddox of Temple University, the team’s first female player since 1993 and ninth female in team history. 

The new Globetrotters also feature the top three finishers from the 2011 College Slam Dunk Contest, including the reigning champ Jacob “Hops” Tucker. At 5-10, Tucker sports a 50-inch vertical leap, and his YouTube videos have garnered well over four million views. Tucker joins slam dunk runner-up John “Jet” Williams of UNC-Asheville and semifinalist Darnell “Spider” Wilks of the University of Cincinnati.

The 2012 rookie class has a total of three seven-footers including 7-4 Jermaine “Stretch” Middleton, the third-tallest player in team history, and 7-foot Anthony “Biggie” McClain. At 7-8, Sturgess becomes the tallest Globetrotter ever after a career at Mountain State University (W.Va.). He is the 19th internationally born player in team history, hailing from Loughborough, England.

“The Globetrotters are excited to welcome a new generation of stars to carry on the storied tradition of the world’s most entertaining basketball team,” said Globetrotters CEO Kurt Schneider. “This year’s rookie class features some of the most talented and promising players from across the world.”

Current Globetrotters stars Special K Daley, Big Easy Lofton, Flight Time Lang, Dizzy Grant, Scooter Christensen, and many others will team up with the world class rookies for nearly 270 games on the North American portion of the World Tour, bringing the Globetrotter magic to over 230 cities in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and five Canadian provinces.  

Player rosters in each city will vary and are subject to change.

While Lowe’s time as coach at NCSU did not satisfy fans’ production goals, there isn’t a soul in Wolfpack Country that doesn’t wish Lowe the best in his next endeavor.

UPDATE (Noon): The Utah Jazz made the official announcement this morning.

The 66th NBA season is scheduled to begin on November 1, so the two parties have three-and-a-half weeks to reach an agreement. I wouldn’t sweat just yet, as cancellations of regular season games carry huge losses of television revenue, unlike the exhibition season games. We’ll see…

Expansion toward 16 teams, however, reminds me of the old fable of the fisherman and the businessman:

One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf.

He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.

About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family.

"You aren’t going to catch many fish that way," said the businessman to the fisherman, "you should be working rather than lying on the beach!"

The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, "And what will my reward be?"

"Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!" was the businessman’s answer.

"And then what will my reward be?" asked the fisherman, still smiling.

The businessman replied, "You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat which will then result in larger catches of fish!"

"And then what will my reward be?" asked the fisherman again.

The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions.

"You can buy a bigger boat and hire some people to work for you!" he said.

"And then what will my reward be?" repeated the fisherman.

The businessman was getting angry. "Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!"

Once again the fisherman asked, "And then what will my reward be?"

The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, "Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!"

The fisherman, still smiling, simply looked up, nodded and said: "And what do you think I am doing now?" He then looked at the sunset, with his pole in the water, without a care in the world.

Parking is so bad in Chapel Hill that they created a 28-page manual to guide people in to games. I strongly advise reading the manual before leaving, although you will have plenty of time to sit and read if you choose I-40 and Hwy 54 for your route. Instead, it is likely a better option to take highway 64 West from Cary, then turn on Farrington Road, which leads to the 15-501/54 intersection on the south edge of campus. Other good back roads are Old Durham Road (from the 15-501/40 area) and Stagecoach Road.

Or, you could just be like Greg Little and park wherever the #$%^ you want. Good luck!

gogo has gone all out again, offering schedules for each individual ACC team, as well as one giant calendar which includes all 281 games. Events on the calendars include not only the game time, but also links to ESPN’s team pages and the name of the venue where the game is being played. On some devices, like Android phones, the location becomes a link to Google Maps showing the venue’s location.

For those already subscribed to the Google Calendar version of the ACC Complete calendar or any of the other supporting Google Calendars from gogoraleigh, you don’t have to do anything. All 281 events have been added automatically. As event details change, you’ll see automatic changes in your calendar.

And wait….there’s more! Gogoraleigh decided that these 13 calendars aren’t enough, and added home-only calendars for UNC and N.C. State. All for the low low price of ZERO!

Outlook-Based Blackberry/iPhone/Palm Users

• After downloading the appropriate CSV file (see below), create a new folder in your in Outlook calendar (Bball11, for example). Use the File | Import and Export… to import from “another program or file”, then “Comma Separated File (Windows)”. Be sure to pick your new calendar folder as the target. This will set up the schedule in your new sub-calendar where you can make whatever changes you want.
• iPhone Users – Open iTunes with the iPhone connected and sync (you may have to specify your newly added calendar in the “Info” tab’s Calendars section.) Now you can view the basketball schedules as their own sub-calendar or as a part of all calendars.
• If you have a device which doesn’t support subcalendars (like Treos and older Palm devices), you’ll need to copy the imported basketball events into your main calendar. When you are happy with the way the subcalendar looks, change the calendar view to “Events” (instead of 7-day or 31-Day or whatever view you’re using). “Select All” from the list, and drag them over to your main “Calendar” (The Treo and other Palm Handhelds only sync to the main calendar – time for Palm to get with the program on that one!). If you want to keep your sub-calendar intact, use Ctrl-drag instead of plain drag. That will create a copy of each event to the main Calendar and keep the Bball08 calendar in place. Sync your handheld to copy the events to the handheld.

Google Calendar/Android Users

My favorite way to follow the ACC’s basketball calendar is to add it to my Google Calendar set. The Google Calendar is a dynamic, subscribable calendar that offers much flexibility. For instance, several game times have not been announced. As soon as they are set, actual game times will magically appear in your calendar. Also, Google Calendar offers a map link for quick viewing of the game’s venue location.

Additionally, Google has created a simple interface through mobile phone browsers. It allows one to view and implement ACC Calendar events. It also recognizes hyperlinks in the event’s description, so easy access to the team files is achievable by using the online Google Calendar app. To view these add the calendar using the link below, then visit http://calendar.google.com from within Safari on the iPhone or your Android browser.

(Note: Gogoraleigh will also carry the home-only calendars as an integrated feature of its normal Gogoraleigh Do-It Calendar).

To view a Google Calendar, go to the gogoraleigh Calendars page and click on the appropriate calendar link. Once the calendar is displayed, you can add it your set of Google Calendars by clicking on the “+Subscribe” bottom on the bottom right.

iCal Users

There are two options:

• Use iCalTextImport to import the .CSV version (linked above) of the schedule.
• Download the .ics file from the Calendars page and import it into iCal.

Palm Desktop and Yahoo! Calendar Users

My brother-in-law taught me a neat trick. In order to get a CSV calendar into Palm Desktop, one can use Yahoo! Calendar as an intermediary. After downloading the .CSV file from gogoraleigh, open Yahoo! Calendar and click “Options” in the upper right. Then select “Import/Export”. Go to “Import From Outlook”, selected the filename, and click “Import”. Yahoo! Calendar users are done at this point. Palm Desktop users need to verify the import, then return to the “Export to Palm Desktop” section. Pick your target and hit “Export”. The resulting .DBA file should then be ready to import into Palm Desktop.

Beware! It appears easy to lump Yahoo! Calendar events that are unrelated into one calendar. If you are simply using Yahoo! Calendar as a conduit to Palm Desktop, verify that your calendar is clean before originally importing the .CSV file, otherwise unrelated events will get lumped with basketball dates in your resulting .DBA file.

RSS

Each of the Google Calendars carries an RSS feed. This might be an interesting addition to your RSS Feed collection because each calendar change will appear in the feed. This is most useful as an alert to a game time changes in the schedule. The RSS Feed for each calendar can be found when viewing each individual Google Calendar.

Notes

Calendars are apt to change, so check back occasionally for updates. To determine the version of your schedule, open the note associated with any event, and look for the version number. If your calendar is older than those listed above, simply delete the events in Outlook in your old one and import the events of the newer file. Google Calendar is dynamically updated on the back end, so you always know you are up to date when using Google Calendar.

Use at your own risk. I do not accept responsibility for any consequences resulting from errors in the schedule.

Link to Gograleigh Calendars

• Webb Simpson a humble star in the making (CBSSportsline)
• Webb Simpson rising through the ranks (ESPN.com)
• Simpson reacts to the win he "was dreaming about" (WRAL video)
• Simpson’s victory hits close to home (Boston Globe)
• Webb Simpson Wins Wyndham, Proclaims Christ Lord and Savior (Examiner.com)

I was able to visit Section 120 recently and saw that not only are the seats a solid, fairly bright red (though not as bright as Memorial Auditorium’s, thank goodness), the new frames for the seats are black, insuring against color slump from exposure to the arena’s bright playing surface lighting. The chairs are the same size as before, however the armrests feel slightly shorter and are bowed slightly.

Sections containing only the large chairs are being replaced first, so I still have not determined what style chair will be used in the upper rows in the end sections which previously contained smaller, less confortable chairs.

While the chairs themselves are a nice replacement, the aisle lighting is emphatically not. The RBC Center has followed the technology bandwagon and installed white LED lighting under the last armrest of the row. Unfortunately the lighting is distractingly bright during a concert and has a yucky, almost blue hue that probably reaches the upper 5000K range of temperature. The lighting from the original seats was an extra-warm amber that was a perfect balance during dark events.

The seating replacement is expected to be completed before the first exhibition game for the Carolina Hurricanes in mid-September.

The 1983 season carried few national story lines: Could Ralph Sampson finally win it after turning down the NBA again?, Could Michael Jordan and a strong UNC team earn another title? Could Guy Lewis’ incredibly talented team continue its dominance through the post-season? That Houston team had names like Micheaux, Franklin, and Young, but it also had Akeem “The Dream” Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler, who would go on to be two of the NBA’s Greatest 50 Players. The team was perhaps the greatest fast-breaking team in history, easily earning the moniker “Phi Slamma Jamma”. The way they dismantled a sensational Villanova team in Kemper Arena in the Regional Finals was nothing short of scary. They were a great rebounding team, too, so dominant that only a miracle could stop them.

Lorenzo Charles came to Raleigh in the fall of 1981 from Brooklyn and quickly became a household name; for the wrong reasons. One night during his first semester, Charles mugged a Domino’s Pizza delivery man and became the brunt of jokes across the ACC. Duke students greeted him with pizza boxes as (yet another) NCSU player had gotten in trouble with the law (see Tiny Pender). Charles settled in, worked on his game, and became a bona fide starter his sophomore year.

The 1983 team was a solid team on paper, but they were thin in the backcourt. Things got worse one night in January when Virginia’s Othell Wilson landed from a jumpshot on Derrick Whittenburg’s right foot, breaking the DeMatha product’s Right 5th Metatarsal bone. Whittenburg would not play for roughly six weeks. During that 14-game period, the Pack struggled going 9-5, but taught us a valuable lesson about laying down a foundation when times are tough. Young shooter Terry Gannon got more reps, and Ernie Meyers’ game really flourished. Little did we know how important they would be spelling starters in tight, more important games.

Whittenburg, coincidentally, returned to play in the Pack’s game at Virginia, and it took a few games for the team to find its rhythm. However in the regular season’s final game, the Pack flexed its muscle in a way that hadn’t been seen since David Thompson left early to the NBA; a 130-89 thrashing of a solid Wake Forest team. “Hmm,” we thought.

Still, NCSU had lost 10 regular season games and needed to get to the ACC championship game to even be in the NCAA tournament conversation, by most accounts. Its first opponent in the ACC tournament was a familiar face; Wake Forest. This time, though, it was a nip and tuck game to open the tournament, coming down to two free throws with a dead clock to win the game 71-70. Who made those two shots? Lorenzo Charles, a 67% free throw shooter.

Next came an improbable OT win against the defending National Champion Tar Heels, led by Sam Perkins and the eventual greatest player to play the game, Michael Jordan. Only Ralph Sampson and the Virginia Cavaliers stood between the Pack and the Big Dance now. NCSU squeaked out a 3-point win for the ACC title, and earned the automatic bid to the tournament. “Four for Albuquerque!” my family announced as we facetiously begged scalpers for Final Four tickets while leaving The Omni.

Of course the Cardiac Pack went on to dispose of Jim Harrick’s Pepperdine team in a double OT heart-stopper in the middle of the night. Next was a last-minute upset of nationally 6th–ranked UNLV. In the Sweet 16 State got a bit of a break, as Utah was no match for the Pack. However the Pack would have another legendary game in a 4th game against the mighty Virginia Cavaliers. The one-point win disposing of 4-year media darling Ralph Sampson sent the city of Raleigh into a frenzy. Horns could be heard across the city as fans poured into the Brickyard for the Pack’s first return to the Final Four since winning it all in 1974.

The Pack went on to handily beat the Georgia team that knocked off UNC, and the well-documented championship became the Houston coronation that wasn’t. State found itself in familiar territory against Houston; down by 6 with around a minute left. We’ve all seen the desperation shot by Derrick Whittenburg and the miraculous stuff by Lorenzo Charles. Almost equally as bewildering, though, is that it was the game’s only dunk, and that Lorenzo Charles only scored 4 points.

* * *

Books have been written about the miraculous ‘83 team, however none quite address how the experience keeps teaching lessons and keeps impacting the Raleigh area. For this 8th grader, it was a bright light in a dismal education period. Junior High was not easy, but NCSU’s win brought the school together as fans of all schools stunningly celebrated the miraculous championship. I was obsessed with jumping and increasing my vertical jump during that period, and it was the first time that I was able to touch a 9-foot ceiling. As the grade’s second-shortest person, the touch taught me that we can go beyond our perceived boundaries, especially when we are truly inspired.

Lorenzo Charles was basketball role model. I always wanted to have a tough, back-to-the-basket game like his. While playing a big-man basketball game was never in the cards for me, it still was a fun escape. More importantly, though, Charles stood as a testament to those who have gotten in trouble; you are not eternally damned and are still capable of greatness.

The ‘83 championship inspired dreams of many, and one of those dreams was that of having a first-class arena. Both Mayor Avery Upchurch and Coach Jim Valvano lobbied necessary people for years to achieve that dream, and today, Raleigh’s RBC Center is one of country’s finest. It is Raleigh’s first climate controlled space that can accommodate more than 2,000 people.

The ‘83 Wolfpack team marked the beginning of an era in the NCAA tournament. Until Charles’ moment, the tournament was predominantly about big programs winning it all. We were less than a decade removed from UCLA’s dominance, and still the rule was that in order to win it all, one needs to be a Top 5 kind of program all season long. Most of the tournament games were predictable and parity was just a concept. After ‘83, tournament games became anyone’s. It was a moment that forever changed the course of the tournament, and turned it into one of the top annual sporting events.

Lorenzo Charles’ professional basketball career was modest, and he went on to be the most recognized limousine driver in the area. Always carrying a smile, he was instantly recognizable to those who were here before Est Est Est was the only decent restaurant downtown. Lorenzo was a walking trophy, representing Hope and all that we can do. Those were some of the favorite moments in our lives, and we will never forget them. We will miss you, Lo Man.

Without a doubt, the gogoraleigh Hurricanes Calendar is the best on the web. Not only is the complete calendar available, but also a home-only version is available. For each event, the teams playing in the event are listed in 3-digit codes, so the entire event is easy to see on devices that can’t display wide paragraphs. Additionally, the game locations are included, so devices that can automatically associate the location field with a map will offer these locations as hyperlinks. This is perfect if you are going to the game in an away city!

Finally, with the synced versions of the calendar, game time changes and television information are automatically updated as the information becomes available.

Android/Google Calendar Users

If you already subscribe to last year’s Carolina Hurricanes schedule feeds, you don’t need to make any changes. The new events now automatically appear in the feed. For those just getting started with this highly efficient method of scheduling, consult the calendars at the gogoraleigh Calendars’ page:

• gogoraleigh Calendars

iPhone/Blackberry/Outlook/Palm Users

• Create a new folder in your in Outlook calendar (Canes11, for example). Use the File | Import and Export… to import from “another program or file”, then “Comma Separated File (Windows)”. This will set up the schedule in your new sub-calendar where you can make whatever changes you want.
• iPhone Users – You are done. Now you can view the Canes’ schedule as its own sub-calender or as a part of all calendars.
• When you are happy with the way the subcalendar looks, change the calendar view to “Events” (instead of 7-day or 31-Day or whatever view you’re using). “Select All” from the list, and drag them over to your main “Calendar” (The Treo and other Palm Handhelds only sync to the main calendar – time for Palm to get with the program on that one!). If you want to keep your sub-calendar intact, use Ctrl-drag instead of plain drag. That will create a copy of each event to the main Calendar and keep the Canes08 calendar in place. Sync your handheld to copy the events to the handheld.
• CSV Files. (right click on the link and “Save As…”)
  • Hurricanes Schedule (Complete) – Download canes_11.csv (version: 6/23/11)
  • Hurricanes Home-only Schedule – Download canes_11_home.csv (version: 6/23/11)

iCal Users

There are two options:

• Use iCalTextImport to import the .CSV version (linked above) of the schedule.
• Download the .ics files and import them into iCal.
  • Hurricanes Schedule (Complete) – .ics file (version: 6/22/10)

Notes

Calendars are apt to change, so check back occasionally for updates. To determine the version of your schedule, open the note associated with any event, and look for the version number. If your calendar is older than those listed above, simply delete the events in Outlook in your old one and import the events of the newer file. Google Calendar is dynamically up-to-date. Use at your own risk. I do not accept responsibility for any consequences resulting from errors in the schedule.

The craze has spurred many local startups, too. One of the newest is Raleigh’s own Mommy Daddy Deals. The site’s focus is generally on local items and services that family’s can use, but their deals are not exclusive to families. Too, the site has a referral credit system that can help users save even more.

This week’s deal features a one year subscription to the ACC Sports Journal (The Poop Sheet) for only $29 (normally $59). The publication is simply the best at covering all of the current happenings at each of the ACC’s 12 constituent schools. The deal will last another week, but it would be a perfect Father’s Day gift for many, hmm,hmm.

Get The Deal

Over the past 50 years, the area has had a local competitor in a large-scale national event during 36 of the past 50 Springs, and 22 of the past 24. The only down years since 1962 have been 1962*, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1996, and 2007.

Click after the break for the detailed events per year since 1962

• 1962: *Wake Forest in Final Four (6-yrs after their move from the town of Wake Forest)
• 1963: Duke in the Final Four
• 1964: Duke in the Final Four
• 1966: Duke in the Final Four
• 1967: UNC in the Final Four
• 1968: UNC in the Final Four
• 1969: UNC in the Final Four
• 1972: UNC in the Final Four
• 1974: NCSU National Champions
• 1977: UNC in Championship Game
• 1978: Duke in Championship Game
• 1981: UNC in Championship Game
• 1982: UNC National Champions
• 1983: NCSU National Champions
• 1986: Duke in Final Four
• 1988: Duke in the Final Four
• 1989: Duke in the Final Four
• 1990: Duke in Championship Game
• 1991: UNC and Duke in the Final Four, Duke National Champions
• 1992: Duke National Champions
• 1993: UNC National Champions
• 1994: Duke in Championship Game, UNC Women National Champions
• 1995: UNC in the Final Four
• 1997: UNC in the Final Four
• 1998: UNC in the Final Four
• 1999: Duke in Championship Game
• 2000: UNC in the Final Four
• 2001: Duke National Champions
• 2002: Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Finals
• 2003: Clay Aiken in American Idol Finals
• 2004: Duke in the Final Four, High Point’s Fantasia Barrino wins American Idol
• 2005: UNC National Champions
• 2006: Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup Champions
• 2008: UNC in Final Four, Kristi Yamaguchi wins Dancing With The Stars
• 2009: UNC National Champions, Carolina Hurricanes in Stanley Cup Final Four
• 2010: Duke National Champions
• 2011: Scotty McCreery in American Idol Semifinals

In order to add this calendar to your collection of Google Calendars, simply click on the Calendar tab at the top of this page, scroll down to the Durham Bulls calendar, and follow the link/instructions there.

Looks like Raleigh gets the better end of this deal, assuming there is an NBA season next year. While Raleigh gets to cheer against God’s Gift to the World for a night, Charlotte gets to cheer against a hockey team about which Atlanta couldn’t care less. Oh, I’m sorry. We will cheer Stephen Jackson, DJ Augustin, Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas, and Gerald Henderson. yep.

I remember liking his interviews when he was at Alabama. They miked him up for a game and it was fun to hear his conversation. Solid hire. Who cares about shaking the earth. He can get the team to being good. Alabama is hard to recruit to, so he might be able to do even better here. With Leonard Hamilton being the 3rd best coach in the ACC, the ACC beyond Roy and K is wide open (and they won’t be around in 10 yrs)….

Let’s revisit this list, however, with the tournament schedules in mind. The list appears in the order in which each coach’s team will play over the next four nights.

Format: Name (school) – Sagarin Computer Ranking, Tourney Seed, Air Time (Network)

Season Over (No Bid or Tourney Loss)

• Fred Hoiberg (Iowa St) – #87
• Ron Everhart (Duquense) – #75
• Randy Bennett (St. Marys-Cal) – #43, NIT 2-seed. 11p (ESPN2) – Lost by 1 in 1st round

Wednesday

• Gregg Marshall (Wichita St) – #64, NIT 4-seed. 7p (ESPN2)
• Tad Boyle (Colorado) – #49, NIT 1-seed. 9p (ESPN3.com)
• Ken Bone (Wash. St) – #55, NIT 2-seed. 10p (ESPNU)

Thursday

• Blaine Taylor (ODU) – #39, NCAA 9-seed. 12:40p (truTV)
• Chris Mooney (Richmond) – #36, NCAA 12-seed. 4:10p (TBS)

Friday

• Mark Turgeon (Texas A&M) – #33, NCAA 7-seed. 4:10p (TBS)
• Chris Mack (Xavier) – #35, NCAA 6-seed. 7:27p (truTV)
• Mark Fox (Georgia) – #52, NCAA 10-seed. 9:45p (CBS)

Advancing, Next Game TBA

• Cuonzo Martin (Missouri St) – #73, NIT 3-seed. 8p (ESPN3.com)

If you would like to add these events to your Google Calendar, simply follow the link below.

The two area teams playing include:

• UNC vs. Long Island – Friday at 7:15 pm (CBS)
• Duke vs. Hampton – Friday at 3:10 pm (truTV)

This year’s tournament will be broadcasted on four different networks for the first time. The games will appear in Raleigh on these Time Warner Cable Channels:

SD

• CBS – 3 and 105
• TBS – 34 and 302
• TNT – 26 and 301
• truTV – 44 and 313

HD

• CBS – 1105 and 5.1
• TBS – 1302
• TNT – 1301
• truTV – 1313

The calendars are available in the “Calendars” tab found at the top of the page at Gogoraleigh. Scroll down to “Carolina Railhawks Soccer 2011” and select your desired format.